WWE Monday Night RAW is Live from Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tonight Renee Young joins the commentary desk as the first full time female commentator. The B Team will get their RAW Tag Team Championship rematch against Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, and Alexa Bliss and Mickie James will be in tag team action against RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and Natalya.

Show Opener with Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, and Drew McIntyre In Ring

Botches

This episode was consumed by promotion of two upcoming events and Connor’s Cure. WWE has a lot going on right now with Hell In A Cell this weekend and Super Show-Down. Connor’s Cure is one of the many great things WWE does with their time and platform, but with everything else they did this week, this show was bogged down in a lot that wasn’t wrestling.

Bobby Roode and Chad Gable together doesn’t make sense. Hopefully this is leading to a break-up soon with a heel turn for Bobby Roode. Otherwise this isn’t going to help either of them.

Triple H and Mick Foley both taking up time didn’t help keep this show on track. Two legends coming back for time on the mic was just more extraneous activity for this show.

Bodyslams

Nikki Bella actually looked good and her match with Ruby Riott was a better opener than it seemed on paper.

The women’s tag team match was enjoyable, and it was good to see Ronda Rousey in action again on RAW.

Finn Balor and Elias were great together, and I could do with a nice long feud between them.

These are the kind of episodes that make RAW feel like a three hour commercial for everything else WWE is doing. Being the flagship show for WWE means RAW carries the torch for promoting everything WWE is doing, and it takes away from the superstars, the wrestling, and the product viewers came for in the first place. Storylines have been abandoned over the last two weeks, people have disappeared from television, and everything has been upended. The Revival are MIA, but Bobby Roode and Chad Gable had another tag team match. The tag team division is in a shambles, but everyone is competing in tag team matches. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense. Maybe things will come around and make more sense after Hell In A Cell.